Duckweed is a valuable source of protein and a potential crop for animal feed. FiBL Switzerland has published a fact sheet that addresses the main challenges for production and addresses unanswered questions, for example in the area of biosafety, the legal basis for using liquid manure as a nutrient substrate or the storability of duckweed used as animal feed.
The cultivation and import of animal feed in particular has a negative impact on the ecological balance in animal husbandry. Locally produced feedstuffs, on the other hand, can increase the sustainability of animal feed in the long term. Duckweed has great potential in this respect.
The start of production on farms and in industrial plants is currently still hampered by unresolved issues relating to biosafety, the storability of duckweed and the utilization of liquid manure.
The use of duckweed as animal feed is already established in aquacultures around the world. Duckweed is not very suitable as feed for fish farming under Swiss conditions, as the species farmed are not herbivores.
Nevertheless, the suitability of duckweed as feed for poultry and pigs means that there are other possible uses apart from aquaculture. This fact sheet also addresses the use of duckweed as a bioenergy plant, or in the field of biomining for the remediation of heavily polluted waters.
- Download here the facht sheet ‘Duckweed – a useful crop’
Further information at www.fibl.org/en
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